£ 273 million resolutions in the gold “bleaching” sector alone! Quarries and Crushers: Where Did Billions of Dollars Go?

In light of the bankruptcy and the search for resources for the state, it was surprising that government, economic and financial plans did not include the filing of violations of public property and those who transgressed it, and among them, those who violated and evaded the payment of fees and fines in the quarry, sandbox and crusher file.

The last measure taken in this file was the government’s decision in late 2017 to instruct the Army’s Directorate of Geographical Affairs to determine the volumes extracted from this sector to hold violators accountable. However, none of this happened! The same decision was mentioned again in Article 61 of the 2019 Budget Law, but without the issuance of its applied decree. Although there are more than 1,500 investors, figures on the treasury income from the collection of fees and bonuses in exchange for investment in this sector were never known. Despite all the violations, working without a license (more than 90% of investors) or not committing to licenses, since the beginning of 2019, only 433 minutes of referral have been received to the Internal Security Forces regarding the extraction and transfer work of the Ministry of the Interior, Municipalities and Governors. Investment of quarries and crushers without license. The Ministry referred her to the Ministry of Justice Case Authority to assign a state attorney to follow up on the matter! During the same period, the Ministry of the Environment sent 24 books to the Ministry of the Interior, the municipalities and the governors to stop working in some 80 quarries, sand pits and a crusher that works without a legal license based on the complaints received. by the Ministry of the Environment, and directed eight books to the environmental prosecutors so that they stop working there. However, the result of all this did not exceed 16 trials. The value of the sums ruled in favor of the treasury amounted to about £ 273 million, in a sector that must generate billions of dollars! While the prosecution decided to keep 7 records.

In addition, the Ministry of the Environment did not fulfill its duty to prosecute violators, but the former Minister of the Environment, Mohamed Al-Machnouk, responded, in 2016, guarantees worth around four billion pounds related to the rehabilitation of quarries and sandboxes for 56 violating and distorted investors without the approval of the National Council of Quarries, and without benefiting from these rehabilitation guarantees as stipulated in the relevant decrees!
A preliminary survey carried out by the Ministry of the Interior in 2010 revealed that there are around 1,278 quarries. However, this number has been questioned because the largest number of quarries, quarries and crushers operate outside the scope of Decree 8803 (04/10/2002), which sponsors the regulation of this sector. As for the survey carried out by the General Staff of the Army Command and the Information Division of the Internal Security Forces, in 2013, it showed the presence of around 147 sand oysters, 189 quarries and gravel crushers and 219 quarries of decorative quarries, distributed in several regions (some of which are suspended), in addition to the extraction works. Raml in streams and estuaries of some rivers.
However, these surveys remain incomplete due to the misleading directions under which investors work in this sector, and the multiplicity of references that grant permits (internal, environmental, governors and municipalities …), under various names such as: administrative deadlines , land reclamation and secretions, microfiber transport, resulting transport to warehouses, Ramool Laundries, concrete sanctuaries, asphalt sanctuaries, rock saws, investment in industrial sand pits, excavators, road construction, building permits, construction of mountain ponds … etc.). All this works without licenses from the National Quarry Council, which held six meetings in 2019, the result of which was the decision to license a sand platform (Ain al-Jawza in Baalbek) and the second to license a decorative stone quarry (Kafrouna – Jezzine), and six decisions to license individual crushers (without a quarry) General construction projects are required, especially in Keserwan and Douma, and 6 decisions to authorize classified small crushing plants without a quarry. During this year (2020), the Council never met, apparently due to the many concerns of Minister Damianus Train.
The last time the quarry and quarry file was presented to the cabinet was on 9/17/2019 when the government approved a draft amendment to Decree 8803/2002 that postpones the approval of the guideline map due to disputes over identification or the exchange of investment sites in this sector. This is the same as successive governments failed since 1982 when one of the engineers had the task of preparing the plan, until the end of the “Give Engineering” (in 1996) studying a management plan that was not fulfilled or respected, on purpose So that this sector continues to be a golden channel for the dominant powers. The deep state in Lebanon, which no government or government can regulate in the framework of the protection of the environment and the preservation of treasury rights.

1500 investors, 90% of whom work without a license or do not comply with their licenses

Proposals to restrict investment in state property to facilitate supervision and make the treasury the largest beneficiary in this sector have long been rejected. The studies of the sites proposed for investment in accordance with Decree 8803 issued on October 7, 2002 estimated the area of ​​these lands at more than 365,000 square kilometers (in Arsal, Tafil and Houtla, and I sponsored Zahle, Qusaya, Deir al-Ghazal and Aita al-Fakhar) … and are mostly state owned and owned or communally owned by Bank of Lebanon. Please note that there are over 29 thousand state owned real estate in the Bekaa region alone! The decree stipulates that the area of ​​property of the applicant for the quarry license must not be less than 5000 square meters. Consequently, these areas can accommodate at least 8,600 investments for a large quarry and crusher, that is, times the estimated national needs!
For many years, this sector was not regulated so that its huge income from the pockets of beneficiaries did not go to the treasury. Investment fees were lost in square meters, land licenses, control and leasing (especially with investments limited to state properties) and control fees and fees in extracted cubic meters … Similarly, the treasury lost billions of dollars for the failure of the Ministry of the Environment and other relevant ministries to fulfill their obligations in terms of collecting state rights in this sector (In particular, the cost of rehabilitation, the cost of environmental degradation, the allowance for vacations, damages , the fine for delay in qualification, the fine for working without licenses, the difference in rates, exceeding the sizes and fines for the delay in paying the fees). And there is no evidence of the fictitious profits investors in this sector receive other than those documented in the judicial decisions issued by the Shura State Council (2005) to compensate Fattoush for around a quarter of a billion dollars, after the plaintiff explain to the state that his daily earnings (which he lost by arbitrarily detaining his crushers) Approximately $ 250,000!